Script idea: limiting daily moves per table to reduce attention overload

[Thomas Yverdon]

Hello everyone,

I’d like to ask a question and share an idea related to attention, notifications, and turn-based games on BoardGameArena.
As much as I love BGA, I’ve noticed that turn-based games can require a lot of attention, mental energy, and time throughout the day. Notifications, unfinished turns, and the constant possibility that “it might be my turn somewhere” tend to fragment focus and interrupt other tasks (work, family time, etc.).
One obvious solution would be to disable notifications entirely. However, in practice this is not ideal:
Without notifications, I end up checking BGA even more often “just in case”.

With notifications enabled, they can interrupt other activities at inconvenient times.

So I was wondering whether it would be technically possible (via a userscript or browser extension) to limit the number of moves you can play per table per day.

For example:
If a table is configured as “4 moves per day”, once you’ve played those 4 moves, you cannot play more on that table until the next day.

Alternatively (or additionally), once the daily limit is reached:
the table no longer shows the red notification badge,
and/or it no longer appears as “waiting for you” in turn-based mode.
The goal wouldn’t be to block playing entirely, but to help regulate attention and reduce the cognitive load of constant micro-interruptions, while still enjoying turn-based games.
Do you think something like this is feasible with the current BGA frontend / APIs? Has anyone experimented with similar scripts or ideas?

Thanks a lot for your insights, and thanks to everyone maintaining scripts and tools for BGA!

Best regards,
Thomas

[Thomas Yverdon]

Just a small follow-up to add some context.
In the meantime, I’ve been using app / website blockers (time limits, allowed hours, or even location-based rules). They do help to some extent, but they feel much less optimal than a solution that would work within BGA itself. Blocking access is quite a blunt tool compared to regulating how turn-based games surface and request attention.
Another idea that might be interesting (and perhaps easier to implement?) would be notification aggregation.
For example, only sending a notification when you are expected on several tables at once, rather than for every single move on every table. This could already reduce a lot of micro-interruptions when playing many simultaneous turn-based games.
Just sharing this as an additional angle — curious whether this sounds more realistic or appealing from a scripting or UX point of view.
Thanks again! Thomas

[BarnardsStar]

I am really unclear on the exact nature of your problem. Others have posted in these fora about being addicted to the site, so I am familiar with the concept. But your particular instance is what I don’t understand. For example, you say turning off notifications doesn’t work because then you end up checking the site more often…but then you go and ask for various ways to turn off the notifications, at least temporarily. If notifications are blocked because of your “fix”, won’t you still have the nagging feeling it could be your turn, and be driven to check the site “just in case”?

So I was wondering whether it would be technically possible (via a userscript or browser extension) to limit the number of moves you can play per table per day.

For example:
If a table is configured as “4 moves per day”, once you’ve played those 4 moves, you cannot play more on that table until the next day.

This would be a bad idea, since it would still in fact be your turn and your clock would be counting. It would be very easy to run out of time if your 4 moves one day were between 9an and noon, and then the next day you didn’t get on until 3pm.

In the meantime, I’ve been using app / website blockers (time limits, allowed hours, or even location-based rules). They do help to some extent, but they feel much less optimal than a solution that would work within BGA itself. Blocking access is quite a blunt tool compared to regulating how turn-based games surface and request attention.

This is, I believe, the approach a lot of the addiction posters take. Yes, it’s a blunt hammer, but it may be best not to be on the site at all if it takes too much of your attention?

Another idea that might be interesting (and perhaps easier to implement?) would be notification aggregation.

Is the existing option to only notify you once every four hours at most insufficient?

[FDHenneberg]

An extension would have to fit into the BGA ecosystem, and for the reasons BarnardsStar mentioned, your proposal doesn’t, even if it was technically possible to do that. Another proposal has been to enable players to limit the number of tables they can open or join, or to exclude oneself from fast turn-based games. Both of these wouldn’t cause any problems. I have had times where I felt I was playing more than I should, and reducing the number of simultaneous games and/or turn speed has solved the problem for me. At the moment, it’s different for certain reasons, but most of the time, I have about 10 turn-base tables with not more than two moves a day. With low speeds, I don’t see why I need notifications, and the lower the speed, the less attractive it is to check in often. If someone feels it was easier to technically impose these rules to oneself, I’d totally understand that and would welcome a solution, be it via BGA or a script. The former isn’t realistic, and I can’t assess the feasibility of the latter.

[SquireKeladry]

Surely the simplest answer would be to only join tables that are 1 move per day or 1 move per 2 days? Then you know that so long as you check BGA once a day, you'll never be in any danger of running out of time in your games and so there's no issue with just turning the notifications off.

One of your current games is on fast turned based speed - these speeds are specifically for players who want to be making 8+ moves/day in their games. If you didn't want fragmented attention, why did you join a game with this speed - do you need some help with understanding how to configure the game speeds to the settings you'd prefer? Ark Nova is one of the most popular games here so I feel sure that you won't have issues with finding plenty of 1 move/day Ark Nova games if that'd suit you better.

[Thomas Yverdon]

An extension would have to fit into the BGA ecosystem, and for the reasons BarnardsStar mentioned, your proposal doesn’t, even if it was technically possible to do that. Another proposal has been to enable players to limit the number of tables they can open or join, or to exclude oneself from fast turn-based games. Both of these wouldn’t cause any problems. I have had times where I felt I was playing more than I should, and reducing the number of simultaneous games and/or turn speed has solved the problem for me. At the moment, it’s different for certain reasons, but most of the time, I have about 10 turn-base tables with not more than two moves a day. With low speeds, I don’t see why I need notifications, and the lower the speed, the less attractive it is to check in often. If someone feels it was easier to technically impose these rules to oneself, I’d totally understand that and would welcome a solution, be it via BGA or a script. The former isn’t realistic, and I can’t assess the feasibility of the latter.

Thanks,

I will try it this way. Maybe it will change how it works for me.
I find a game that lasts days or weeks a bit painful but maybe it's the solution to play less.